New Delhi: The fields of many as 800 farmers in Mizoram have recently seen a serious rodent outbreak, leading to fear in the small northeastern state, according to local news reports.

Mizoram has an agricultural-based economy with about 70% of its population dependent on farming.  

Rodent infestations are locally linked to the flowering of a species of bamboo in the border state. The flowering can lead to rodents appearing on the farmlands, where they eat the standing crops and rice stored in the granaries. There are concerns of a famine-like situation developing.

In 1967, the breakout of a two-decade-long Mizo insurgency led by Laldenga was triggered by one such famine, locally called Mautam. In 1958-59, the flowering of the bamboo plants had led rodents to damage the standing crop and rice granaries. The sense on the ground was that New Delhi did not provide enough help to the people to surmount the crisis. Over 100 people had lost their lives in that famine.

As per government records, a similar famine had affected the Mizo Hills during the British era too — in 1862 and in 1911 after the state witnessed the flowering of the bamboo species that grows wildly across the state. 

As per a Mizoram Post report, Lalrindiki, the deputy director (plant protection) of the state agriculture department, has told reporters in Aizawl that the rising rodent infestation is indeed believed to be a symptom of “Thingtam” – the flowering of the bamboo type locally called Rawthing, which is due this year. 

As per a local belief, Thingtam happens once every 48 years. Such a crisis had surfaced in Mizoram 48 years ago, in 1977. 

In 2008 too, the state had aced a famine-like situation. In 2022, when farmlands in as many as nine districts had faced rodent attacks, timely intervention with financial help by the Union and the state governments had saved lives.

The official told reporters on September 25 that the latest rodent attack has been noted in several villages of the state’s Mamit and Lunglei districts, affecting as many as 800 jhum (shifting cultivation) farmers thus far, thereby “putting the government on high alert to prevent a famine-like situation”. 

As per the news report, she said that the affected farmers mostly grow rice and soybean. “Out of over 2,500 hectares of cropped jhum land areas, about 158 hectares have so far been affected,” she had added. 

The report underlined that of the 800 farmers, 769 are from the Mamit district which borders Tripura and Bangladesh. Teams from the agricultural department have already been dispatched to the affected areas to “guide farmers and village council leaders on how to use rodenticides”. 

Additionally, the state government is also helping the farmers move away from Jhum cultivation as its yield is rather less, and is instead encouraging them to adopt horticulture and long-term plants like betel nut, grapes, pineapple, etc., said the news report. 

Note: An earlier version of this piece had misspelt Laldenga's name. The error has been corrected.

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